Our newest blogger, Sustainable Restaurant Association, speak to Chantelle Nicholson, chef patron of Marcus Wareing's Tredwells about the chef shortage and how the restaurant industry can retain staff post-Brexit.

Half of all chef vacancies are hard to fill and hospitality is facing a shortfall of 60,000 a year if immigration is too tightly controlled post-Brexit, according to research for the British Hospitality Association. That’s the very tough picture facing British restaurants right now.

If the industry does have to drastically reduce its dependence on EU workers – who make up a quarter of the workforce in our kitchens – then how well placed are we to do so?

Our fantastic industry employs about 3 million people and represents about a tenth of the UK’s economic wealth. Yet it is suffering from a huge skills gap – failing to attract enough young people and apparently incapable of hanging on to many of those that it does tempt in. Such is its reputation, half of parents asked in a survey for Best Western said they would discourage their children from a career in hospitality.

Newspaper headlines about chefs working in restaurants from high street to high end being paid less than the National Living Wage and restaurateurs dealing far from transparently when it comes to tips and service charges, are bound to have a negative impact on the industry’s reputation.

Chantelle Nicholson, chef patron at Tredwells, recently judged the Future Chef competition run by Springboard and says she found the experience inspirational and exasperating in equal measure.

“There were over 9,000 entries from the across the country, 12-16-year-olds culminating in the national final. It was so inspiring to see their passion and an incredible level of skill – it was off the scale,” says Chantelle. “Even better, there were nine females out of the 12 finalists.”

So where is the drop-off happening and why? That is the big issue we have to tackle. If we don’t start trying to do something about it right now, nothing will change. And it needs to change, for a number of reasons, but the most pressing being that worst case scenario with Brexit could be disastrous. As a group we have a maximum of 20% British staff, so we won’t be able to function as a business if there are no EU people to employ.

>>> Read more about the chef shortage here

What is the answer to Chantelle’s six million dollar question? There are those, unite the union, for one, who would say that the industry has only to look in the mirror to find the answer. With almost two thirds of chefs working more than 48 hours a week and a 2015 survey finding a quarter of people working in hospitality being paid below the minimum wage, it’s not hard to see why people aren’t banging on the door of every restaurant begging for work.

Chantelle believes that while there is still much to do to, restaurants have already come a long way in terms of their employment pay practices, but that perhaps their sins of the past still haunt them.

Chantelle said: “One of my hunches as to the root cause is that it really hasn’t sunk in yet that the old school ways of the industry have given way to a new school. When I started 13 years ago I worked insane hours – 18-19 hours a day – regularly.
“We are much more conscious of fatigue and work-life balance now generally in the industry. It’s been a passion of mine to ensure staff here at Tredwells and across the whole group get a better deal when it comes to hours. That way they get more time to do things outside work which in turn will improve their performance at work.

“Don’t get me wrong, there are still long hours and it is hard work. Our chefs do seven shifts per week and on a busy day can do